The spectrum being auctioned is particularly valuable low-band airwaves that work better in rural areas and indoors — two areas that T-Mobile has struggled with, compared to Verizon, which has long held the licenses to a large amount of low-band spectrum.

But a new analysis of the data shows that while T-Mobile might have spent far more than any other company in the auction, it wasn’t just a case of having a bigger purse. Spectrum was sold in seven 10MHz bands, and each band was available for a particular region. For example, T-Mobile could have bought Band G for use in Washington DC, but AT&T could have bought the rights to the same band in New York City.

A lot of that difference is probably down to geography. As you can see from the maps from Mosaik included below, T-Mobile bought spectrum in every single market across the country, including a lot of rural areas that were less valuable. AT&T focused its spectrum buys around much more expensive areas, like the Philadelphia-DC metro area, Dallas, Seattle, and San Francisco.

Looking at the raw auction data from the FCC, this becomes even more clear. T-Mobile and AT&T paid exactly the same price in regions like New York, Chicago and San Francisco; the difference is that AT&T didn’t even bid on spectrum in Wahpeton, ND, where licenses were sold for $5,000.

Source: BGR | Click here to read the full article on the publication's website.